We at xStuck In The Pastx know that hardcore is a worldwide phenomenon, and that there are tons of great bands all over the globe. But you come don't across bands from Indonesia all that often. The first time I encountered Hands Upon Salvation was on a 4-way split CD called 'The Burden Reflects' they did with Canopus and Gates Of Hopeless from Japan and another Indonesian band called Nothing, which I got sometime in the late 00's. It's a solid split/compilation, and Hands Upon Salvation was mildly impressive with their blend of 90s metalcore mixed with death metal influences as well as taking cues from early 00s bands such as Endthisday.

Recently, HUS's singer Agus contacted me about their latest album 'Entity', and sent me a copy of it, as well as their previous MCD, 'Celebrate The Newborn'. The progression the band has made throughout the recordings is pretty clear. Their sound has become tighter and thicker, musically they've become a bit more technical and they have some pretty sick riffs in their songs. Agus has grown quite a bit as a singer, with a wider range from screams to grunts to spoken words. Bands like Liar, Endthisday and Day Of Suffering all come to mind at various points, with a heavy dose of death metal. Their 90s influences are quite clear while listening to the album, for instance 'A Thousand Crying Eyes' reminds me of Belgium's Arkangel quite a bit. They also have softer parts with spoken words which remind me of the 90s, as well as the occasional hardcore back-up vocals. They're using solo's even less than on their older material, which is a good decision to me, I personally don't care much for solo's. Instead they have added more variety to their songs and song-structures, making them better as a whole. They've also re-recorded some older songs, which sound much better now, including the aforementioned 'A Thousand Crying Eyes' which was originally recorded in 2003, and it sounds like some changes to the arrangements were done as well. There is the occasional use of those very metal 'galloping' rhythms, and they don't do much for me, but oh well, you can't have it all.

Because Hands Upon Salvation are from Indonesia, a country not exactly known for its hardcore/metalcore scene, and aren't able to tour much outside of it, most people will likely pass up on them, but do give them a chance. They're an above-average band with plenty to offer for anybody into any of the aforementioned bands.

Came across this Avail interview from Manor Farm zine #2. No date is listed but judging by the other interviews, I'm going to say about 1993. I always felt bad for bands who toured with Avail because they almost always were blown off the stage. Avail live > most other bands. Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

This video comes straight from the vault of Ron Brotherhood, and is a nearly full set from Undertow at Magic Circle in Redmond, WA on 4/8/94. Also of note, that was the same day that Kurt Cobain's dead body was discovered in Seattle.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

For a hot minute, Glasseater was a pretty big deal. The band was all over the country touring and releasing records with different labels. They had a pretty consistent lineup and in my opinion, their early work is their best.

I'm having trouble remembering when this was printed up but I'm pretty sure it was between the release of their debut EP "Miles Ahead of Where We Left Off" and their solo Eulogy Recordings outing, "7 Years Bad Luck". This is being based on the bands logo which was changed after they moved to Fearless Records (and cleaned up previously for the Eulogy release). The "GE" circular logo was used on their Ides of March release as the disc art but never after that.

These were printed on a Champion jerseys (weren't they all?) and if
memory serves also were printed on white. The band was a straight edge
band for most of their existence as shown by the back print and their
"sideproject" Glassuck. I guess you can call it a side project, they
only recorded one song which was a hidden track on their debut EP. The
lyrics for the song were "With this X on my hand, I stay clean (or
free)". Good times in South Florida...

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Obviously, this was announced a couple of weeks ago but sometimes it take a little bit to get things posted...after all, we are stuck in the past (har har). Anyway, in case you missed it, Judge is reuniting to play both shows (Saturday and Sunday), May 18th and 19th. The great thing is that both days have different lineups and feature a good variety of bands, new and old including Madball, Indecision, Crown Of Thornz, Black Train Jack and Take Offense.

Looks like tickets are sold out online but they will be selling a limited number of tickets at the door.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

I'll admit I didn't know who Counterweight was when they were around. They were a vegan (I'm going to assume also straight edge) band from Poland that released this record, "The Flames of Victory" in 1999 on Sanctuary Records. I picked this up maybe 3-4 years ago when our friend xYosefx decided to unload all of his old CDs (where are you man?). Musically, its a good mixture of the 90s Syracuse chug and late 90s European metal (Arkangel, Liar) with a little Day of Suffering thrown in there. The lyrics are in English but all of the liner notes are in Polish. Vocals kinda remind me of Dan Gump from Excessive Force. Good recording to boot...my scanner needs to be replaced so I'll try to get my wife to scan the layout tonight on hers. Until then, enjoy this. If anyone knows anymore about the band, let me know...I'd like to know more.

*EDIT: I got my wife to do the scans last night. I had her scan the insert as well the traycard and made them a SEPARATE download which can be found below.

If you dig this, our friend Henrik posted their demo "Sculptured In Blood" on his blog "Bring Honour Or Walk Away".
Unfortunately, he hasn't updated in a while but it's still got some
killer demos posted, provided the links still work. Pick up the demo by
clicking the link above to go to his blog.

Monday, March 11, 2013

I was digging through my hard drive and trying to find an old interview
to post when I came across this interview with "Lifetime's new female
bassist" from Actionfigure zine in 1993. The bassist is never named in
the interview but we can assume it's Linda Kay. The interview is pretty
awkward as you'll see...the interviewer is really trying to pull answers out of her and not getting much.

As I was digging around to uncover a little more info, I came across this tidbit of news from Punknews.org regarding Linda...sure it's almost 7 years old but it's the first I'd heard about it. Creepy...

Saturday, March 9, 2013

To go along with the Spawn t-shirt post that Chip posted the other day, I've decided to post shirts from my own collection. First on the list is the Arizona straight edge band Groundwork.

I got this shirt through a trade a couple years back. The details of the deal escape me, but needless to say, I was very excited to add this shirt to my collection, seeing as how Groundwork merch is very few and far between. It's an extra large Hanes Beefy T shirt. This shirt was printed by the band to go along with a tour around the time that the Living in Fear 7" came out. The back features a picture of a protester being beaten by riot police. The ink on the front is crisp; nearly brand new looking. The back image is slightly faded, yet the condition is surprisingly great considering its age. Their label, Bloodlink Records, printed their own version of this, that featured a different logo on the front and the addition of the Bloodlink emblem on the back shortly after this shirt came out.

I'll leave you with a video of them from a house show in Arizona in 1993, playing the song "Hungry" that was featured on their LP, Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent.

Our friend and part time collaborator, Jav, posted this live audio set of Texas Is The Reason playing Coney Island High back in 1996. Great set list and as far as I know, his site is the only place you can score this. Head on over to his site, All Over This Town to download this and check out a bunch of great 90s photos.
Check it out by clicking here: All Over This Town

From the Dying Sky was a vegan straight edge metalcore band from Italy, active from 1999 to 2003. The band had only one proper release, an EP entitled "Truth's Last Horizon", which was released on Dark Sun Records in 2000. Five songs of crushing metalcore, not unlike Abnegation, Arkangel, and Caliban. FTDS also provided a track that didn't appear on the EP called "To Allow the Sun to Shine" for a Catalyst Records compilation called "The Path of Compassion," alongside bands like Maroon, Risen, and Another Victim in 2001. Barely two years after the release of the EP, a re-release came out on Burning Season Records due to the surprising interest. FTDS broke up shortly after in 2003.

Friday, March 8, 2013

So many kids in the 90s (usually kids who weren't in bands) used to make fun of European hardcore bands...I never really understood why. So many killer bands came out of Europe, especially the H-8000 area in the mid to late 90s. Germany's Spawn put a slew of great releases including "Redone", their lone full length on Crucial Response Records in 1995. A little different than what CR had released previously but they were rolling with the punches and going with what kids were into at the time. Good chunky hardcore that reflected the time. I know they did a split with Despair but honestly, they sounded quiet a bit like them. Vocally, the dude sounds like Ian MacKaye to me..but that's just what I hear. The one negative was that the damn CD came in one of those awful cardboard sleeves that labels loved to release back then. Seriously glad that trend went out the window...
Anyway, this shirt was printed up by the label for the release of the record. To be quite honest, I don't remember where I picked this up but Ebay would be a safe bet. Great color combination featuring the colorway from the record cover...not sure if this was printed on any other colors but it works so well on navy.
In case you missed it a few years back, I've just re-upped "Redone" and
included scans of the layout and lyrics sheet. You can find that by
clicking here: Spawn - Redone

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

On New Year's Eve of 1996, National Guard offically became Backside Disaster at Thee O, and roughly six months later in 1997, they recorded this first demo. However, they never actually released the demo, and it has been lying dormant on a DAT tape for the last 16 years. This demo provides a much better link between the sounds of National Guard, and the more complex riffs that would show up in later Backside Disaster songs.

There are six tracks on the demo, and people that attended early Backside Disaster shows might remember such songs as "Payback" and "Nourishment". Of the six tracks, only one was re-recorded for the second demo in November of 1997.

Without further ado, here is the first, unreleased Backside Disaster demo; remastered from the original master DAT tape.

Chokehold playing at an unknown location in
Detroit, MI on 12/?/95. This is as close to the full set as I've seen,
but the video cuts out as they are halfway into the last song, "Burning
Bridges". If anyone can help with info about the venue, or the exact date, please get in touch.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Going through my old videos has been great. Over the coming months, a bunch of awesome full sets will be posted, and today it's Unbroken at a VFW Hall in Bordertown, NJ on 7/10/94. It's hard to say that this is truly the full set, though, because after a half stack comes tumbling down, there's a cut in the video, but this is the full video that exists of that set.

Corrin was a mid/late 90s metalcore band from New England that featured Jesse Leach (original singer of Killswitch Engage) handling vocal duties. This is their 2 song 7" that was released on Hydra Head records in 1996. Really interesting/cool stuff, much different than your typical 1990s metalcore. FFO: Converge, Starkweather and Overcast

Sunday, March 3, 2013

I haven't had as much time to dedicate to Stuck In The Past as I once did and unfortunately (or fortunately depending on the way you look at it) my posts have become few and far between. Since my Medifire account was suspended, I'm going to attempt to repost some of those old links

That said, I saw someone had requested some material from the French band, Jasemine. I remember when the split with Ivich came out in about 95 or 96 and that the band had members of the band Fingerprint, but other than that I really know little about them. They are definitely an acquired taste as the vocals may take some getting used to. VERY high pitched and almost power violence-ish...it took me a little while to get it but once I did, this record was a regular spin for me.

In this upload, you will find their tracks from the split with Ivich (sorry, I don't have those ripped) as well as their 1994 (???) demo. To my knowledge, the band also released a split with Elements of Need but I don't have that. If anyone has anymore info on the band, I'd love to hear as I really don't know much about them.

These scans are not mine...they are from Discogs but the uploader was not listed so I apologize for not listing the name.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

In 1998, Florida's Shai Hulud came to Portland for the first time with Overcast and Disembodied, and they all played at the Stage 4 Theater. The show was originally set to be at 17 Nautical Miles, but it got moved a couple weeks prior, and it's a good thing it did, because there's no way everyone would have fit into that tiny venue. Unfortunately, video of Overcast and Disembodied from that night are lost forever, as the master copies got destroyed when the original filmer's basement flooded. But I still had the Shai Hulud set on VHS, and here it is.

Friday, March 1, 2013

The Setup was a vegan straight edge band from Chula Vista, CA. Super heavy, chuggy vegan hardcore. I've always compared them to bands like Canon and Birthright or if Chokehold was from California and had decent recordings (ha).

They released the Screams of Reason 7" in 1997 on Words Of War Records, then followed up with a demo titled "Straight Outta Chula Vista" in 1998. They were supposed to release an LP on Warpath Records, but sadly that was never officially released.

This is the bands entire discography to my knowledge. If anybody has any more info on them please let us know.

April 1st, 2000 served as the first show for my old band, The Dead Unknown, and the final show for Backside Disaster. Now that I finally have myself setup for transferring VHS tapes, here are full sets of both bands from that night.

While this blog is all about reminiscing about bands of the 1990s, I'd like to use this section to shed some light on a current band who draws heavy influence from bands of that time. Antpile is a post-hardcore/screamo band from north Georgia, combining elements from bands like On the Might of Princes, Portraits of Past, and Texas is the Reason. They began in the spring of 2010 as a three piece with Brian McGhee on bass/vocals, Ben Jordan on guitar/vocals, and Blake Hall on drums. At the time, each member played in (and helped start) Deathbed. With the addition of Tom Lovejoy (Some Mistakes/Latin for Truth) on guitar, the band perfected their sound and continue to prove why they are one of the most talented and unique bands in the Atlanta hardcore scene. You can hear each of their three releases on Bandcamp.